Funding News Edition: February 03, 2021 See more articles in this edition
NIH does not have minimum effort requirements for principal investigators (PIs) of unsolicited research project grants, although some individual funding opportunity announcements may set a minimum effort requirement for the PI.
Reviewers will look at your proposed effort and make their own determination of whether that effort is sufficient to meet the needs of the proposed studies. Your grant score could be affected if you propose less effort than deemed necessary by the reviewers.
However, NIH does have requirements for Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR), career development, training, and fellowship grants.
- For STTR awards, a PI's minimum effort is 10 percent of the total effort on the project. For more information about small business awards, see Compare NIAID Small Business Programs.
- For career development awards except the Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (Parent K24, Independent Clinical Trial Required), the minimum effort is nine person months.
- For fellowship grants and trainee appointments, the minimum effort is 12 person months. Go to NIAID’s Training and Career Development Grant Programs to learn more.
For an explanation of how to calculate person months, go to NIH's Usage of Person Months frequently asked questions.